Unsurprisingly, the healthcare industry is one of the richest in the world. In the United States alone, healthcare pulled in a staggering 8.45 trillion dollars in 2018. Those numbers are likely to go all the way up to 10 trillion by the year 2022.
That’s good news for you if you’re a healthcare services provider. In order to collect that money though, you first need to effectively bill your clients.
Therein lies the value of hiring the best medical billing company you can get your hands on.
A quality medical billing service is comprised of people that are expert medical coders. They’ll make sure that insurance is billed correctly and that customers pay what’s appropriate.
Keep reading to take in 7 questions you should ask a billing contractor before hiring them.
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1. How Long Have You Been in Business?
Experience matters in any industry. Medical billing is no exception.
There are ample insights one must know about billing to be good at it. Everything from codes (that change) to how to legally go about billing consumers needs to be taken into account to avoid disputes and lawsuits.
As a general rule, the longer a billing company has been in business, the more likely it is that they’ve operated in an ethical, sustainable way (hence their ability to stay afloat). Value that expertise when you’re looking for a prospective partner.
2. How Big Is Your Team?
One of the top reasons to hire a medical billing company is that they’re essentially a dedicated team that can scale to whatever your need is.
Don’t have too many clients? In that case, maybe one or two medical billers will be assigned to your account. Have a ton of clients to manage this month? More billers could be assigned to you so your billing doesn’t fall behind as a result of your influx of business.
Billing companies can only shrink/scale to you if they have headcount. Therefore, prioritize groups that are working with as large a team as possible.
3. What Do You Know About HIPPA?
HIPPA is a set of standards that accompany healthcare professions. These standards are legally binding and not following them will land you in deep trouble.
Any medical billing company worth their salt should be versed in HIPPA as not being versed could lead to errors which you could share liability for. Furthermore, billers should be using software to process bills that have HIPPA guardrails built-in which safeguard from the accidental (and illegal) transmission of private data.
4. How Will Conflicts Be Resolved?
Medical billing and conflicts are an inevitable part of the trade. After all, medical services are expensive and most services get split between clients and their insurers.
Rather than having to deal with clients and insurers yourself whenever an issue comes up, you should expect some level of support from your billing company.
Is your billing company prepared to field customer complaints and make adjustments as needed? Is your company confident in its ability to make adjustments, per insurer’s guidelines on rejected bills to get your invoices paid?
The more detail your billing company can give you on how they work to resolve conflicts, the more confident you can be that you won’t get dragged into problems.
5. Do You Understand State/National Billing Practices?
New laws get passed all the time. These laws may affect how medical bills are sent out and what can be charged.
For example, the Heath Care PRICE Transparency Act affects which line-items can be applied to a bill. Violation of that act will at best cause headaches and at worst, legal repercussions.
Your billing team should be able to speak with some fluency to billing legalities. If they can’t, know that you may be buying into repercussions down the line.
6. What Do I Do If I Need Support?
The best medical billing service is one that’s only a phone call away if you need support. That support should also be locally based so you can reach them during regular hours, easily.
How does the prospective biller you’re engaging manage support? Are they going to make you wait on hold for hours? Do they have a dedicated support line for you?
Any medical billing company that’s willing to go above and beyond in the way of support will go above and beyond in the way of the services. Great support means that teams are committed to transparency. It also means that they’re willing to stand by their work.
All of those things are important factors that will maximize your healthcare company’s ability to grow.
7. What’s This Going to Cost Me?
Cost is always a question that’s relevant to healthcare businesses. No matter how good medical billing companies are, if they’re outside your budget, they’re obviously not a good match for you.
Remember, when assessing cost, value is better than price.
A low-cost provider that’s going to do a bad job is more expensive than a pricier billing company that gets things done right.
A Medical Billing Company Frees You up to Do Your Best Work
You got into the healthcare industry to perform healthcare services. You did not get into it to get tied up in paperwork.
Top medical billing companies take the pressure of paper off your hands. That way, you can stay focused on what you do best – Caring for your clients.
For more information on hiring a quality medical billing company and business in general, our team has you covered! Check out more of the information on our blog to keep learning.
